Jan. 2014 - Mazars' budget proposal 2014-2015

Amongst other things, Mazars proposed the HKSAR Government to implement the following measures to enhance competitiveness and facilitate long term development of Hong Kong economy:

• Reduce corporate tax rate to 16% for 2014/2015 and gradually to 15% in order to sustain Hong Kong’s comparative advantage over neighbouring countries.
• Provide tax incentives (e.g. concessionary tax rate of 10%) for regional headquarters activities in order to attract more multinational groups to set up their Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Hong Kong. 
• Provide tax incentives (e.g. 200% tax deduction) for research and development activities in order to encourage private innovative spending and promote technological entrepreneurship.
•  Introduce group loss relief so that Hong Kong can be more competitive internationally.
•  Help SMEs to tide over the challenging time by:
  • Introducing a 2-tier profits tax system which offers a preferential tax rate for SMEs
  • Revisiting the issue of tax deduction for capital expenditure on plant and machinery used outside Hong Kong to ensure the anti-avoidance provision should only be invoked to strike down blatant or contrived tax avoidance scheme.
  • Introducing loss carry-back relief to help companies relieve economic pressure. 

Please click here for the full version of Mazars’ budget proposal, which also includes recommendations on measures for caring for elders and preparing for ageing population etc.